hrough friendship Evangelism is usually easy to initiate with Hindus. Most Hindus esteem religion in general and are free and open to speak about it. A sincere, nonjudgmental interest in all aspects of Indian life will provide a good basis for friendship. Personal interaction with Hindus will lead to a more certain grasp of the essence of Hinduism than reading many books. A consistently Christ-like life is the most important factor in sharing the Gospel with Hindus. The suggestions that follow should help to break down misunderstandings and help to build a positive witness for Christ. But learning and applying these points can never substitute for a transparent life of peace and joy in disciple-ship to Jesus Christ.

1. Do not criticize or condemn Hinduism. There is much that is good and much that is bad in the practice of both Christianity and Hinduism. Pointing out the worst aspects of Hinduism is hardly the way to win friends or show love. Criticizing Hinduism can make us feel we have won an argument; it will not win Hindus to Jesus Christ.

2. Avoid everything that hints of triumphalism and pride. We are not the greatest people with the greatest religion, but some Hindus are taught that we think of ourselves in this way. We do not have all knowledge of all truth; in fact we know very little to become â€œChristian.â€ (Think of what that means to a Hinduâ€”India like America or Europe!) But we do desire all India to find peace and joy and true spirituality.

3. Never allow a suggestion that separation from family and/ or culture is necessary in becoming a disciple of Christ. To insist or even subtly encourage a Hindu to leave his home and way of life to join the â€œChristianâ€ way of life in terms of diet and culture, etc., is a denial of Biblical teaching.

4. Do not speak quickly on hell, or on the fact that Jesus is the only way for salvation. Hindus hear these things as triumphalism and are offended unnecessarily. Speak of hell only with tears of compassion. Point to Jesus so that it is obvious He is the only way, but leave the Hindu to see for himself, rather than trying to force it on him.

5. Never hurry. Any pushing for a decision or conversion will do great harm. God must work, and the Holy Spirit should be given freedom to move at his own pace. Even after a profession of Christ is made, do not force quick changes regarding pictures of gods, charms, etc. Be patient and let a person come to fuller understanding and conviction in his own mind before taking action.

6. Work traditional Hindu (and Biblical) values into your life, like simplicity, renunciation, spirituality and humility, against which there is no law. A life reflecting the reality of â€œa still and quiet soulâ€ (Psalm 131) will never be despised by Hindus.

7. Know Hinduism, and each individual Hindu. It will take some study to get a broad grasp of Hinduism and patient listening will be required to understand where in the spectrum each Hindu stands. Both philosophical and devotional Hinduism should be studied with the aim of understanding what appeals to the Hindu heart. Those who move seriously into work among Hindus need to become more knowledge-able in Hinduism than Hindus themselves are. Some study of the Sanskrit language will prove invaluable. Remember the Biblical pattern from Acts 17 of introducing truth to the Hindu from his own tradition, and only secondarily from the Bible. For example, the Biblical teaching on sin is repulsive to many modern Hindus, but their own scriptures give an abundance of similar testimony. Bridge from Hindu scripture to the Bible and Christ.

8. Be quick to acknowledge failure. Defending wrong practices in the church and Western Christianity only indicates we are more concerned for our religion than we are for truth.

9. Share your testimony, describing your personal experience of being lost and Godâ€™s gracious forgiveness and peace. Donâ€™t claim to know God in His majesty and fullness, but share what you know in your life and experience. This is the supreme approach in presenting Christ to the Hindu, but care must be taken that our sharing is appropriate. To shout on a street corner, or share at every seeming opportunity is offensive. What God does in our lives is holy and private, only to be shared in intimacy to those who will respect the things of God and his work in our lives.

10.Center on Christ. He alone can win their heartsâ€™ total loyalty to Himself. In your life and speech so center on him that all see in your life that God alone is worth living for. Hinduism is often called â€œGod-intoxicated,â€ and the Hindu who lives at all in this frame of mind is put off by Christian emphases on so many details to the neglect of the â€œone thing that is neededâ€ (Lk. 10:42). A Hindu who professes faith in Christ must be helped as far as possible to work out the meaning of that commitment in his own cultural context. Often a new follower of Christ is ready to adopt any and every practice of Western Christians, and needs to be taught what is essential and what is secondary in Christian life and worship. For example, it can be shown that the Eastern practice of removing shoes in a place of worship has strong Biblical precedence despite the fact that shoes are worn in Western churches. A new believer should be warned against making an abrupt announcement to his or her family, since that inflicts great pain and inevitably produces deep misunderstanding. Ideally, a Hindu will share each step of the pilgrimage to Christ with his or her family, so that there is no surprise at the end. An early stage of the communication, to be reaffirmed continually, would be the honest esteem for Indian/Hindu traditions in general that the disciple of Christ can and does maintain. Approaching Hindus on these lines does not result in quick conversions and impressive statistics. But a hearing will be gained from some who have refused to listen to traditional Christian approaches. And new Disciples of Christ can be taught to deal more sensitively with their contexts, allowing them to maintain an ongoing witness to their family and society. As the leaven of the Gospel is allowed to work in Hindu minds and society, a harvest is sure to follow in Godâ€™s own time.

I know there are many Americans who adopt Hinduism because they are pacifists.

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Neither.

They are neo-evangelists who seek to bring us 'heathens/pagans' from darkness into light. And their sole motivator is the money that is being pumped from western countries for each conversion.

It's high time we ban conversion from any religion to another religion once and for all. It;s enough if we had the right to practise our religion. Preaching (aka converting) will only bring destruction upon this country and civilization.

There are so many Indian Christians groups/sites with unlimited west money that it would be impossible to escape such encounter in your life.

Unfortunately, I didn't met any such groups in my life till date. Actually, I would like to meet such people because that will be the day which will be remembered in his life.

There are more ways, Number of Christians schools are very high in India. I studied in one of them. Such schools have proper Church, soft Christian spiritually in teaching and interaction in order to promote the religion among kids as school is best place to start. Unfortunately, They are mostly established names with west money + Govt. funded since long time.

It's also their propaganda like X-Mas = Winter vacations even when Jesus was not born in winter.

At the time this article was written, Max L. Stackhouse taught at Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Centre, Massachusetts. He subsequently taught at Princeton Theological Seminary. This article appeared in the Christian Century, September 9-16, 1986, p. 743.

One of my close friends is Christian. I had a close encounter with one of his uncles who is an active member of a Church. He bombarded me with some questions about Hinduism, like why the Goddess Kali is naked and looks blood-thirsty, how can such personality be a mother goddess....blah blah, surprised me totally (it was a booze party). But I gathered my senses quickly and guessed his motives. I won't tell the forum members what I told him, but he never tried it again.

It's also their propaganda like X-Mas = Winter vacations even when Jesus was not born in winter.

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"The traditional customs connected with Christmas have developed from several sources as a result of the coincidence of the celebration of the birth of Christ with the pagan agricultural and solar observances at mid-winter. December 25 was regarded as the birthdate of the Iranian mystery god Mithra, the Sun of Righteousness. . . The ecclesiastical calendar retains numerous remnants of pre-Christian festivalsâ€”notably Christmas, which blends elements including both the feast of the Saturnalia and the birthday of the god Mithra." Encyclopedia Britannica, 1976 edition; Micropedia II, pg 903, Macropedia 15, pg 1063.

There are so many Indian Christians groups/sites with unlimited west money that it would be impossible to escape such encounter in your life.

Unfortunately, I didn't met any such groups in my life till date. Actually, I would like to meet such people because that will be the day which will be remembered in his life.

There are more ways, Number of Christians schools are very high in India. I studied in one of them. Such schools have proper Church, soft Christian spiritually in teaching and interaction in order to promote the religion among kids as school is best place to start. Unfortunately, They are mostly established names with west money + Govt. funded since long time.

It's also their propaganda like X-Mas = Winter vacations even when Jesus was not born in winter.

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Christian schools have separate sessions for Christian and Non Christian students during ethics/value classes. Dont BS please. From what I remember it is Religious Instruction for Christians and Value Education for Non-Christians. Secondly, all Christian missionary schools are expensive and not what the average Indian can afford. The kids going there come from upper middle class and above families. They are hardly the ideal population to target to convert as they wont.

The conversion drives are targeted in tribal areas and through monetary benefits. I have said this earlier too. The primary funding is from the US through Baptist routes. The evangelists have a target to meet and are paid on a per-head basis (how many converted). The only way to stop this is to make money channeled for such purposes illegal.

We cannot have a law against conversion as it is against the constitution and a step backwards. However we can have a law against external funding of such programs. An effective implementation of such guidelines can wipe out the Evangelist conversion drives in less than 3 years.

We cannot have a law against conversion as it is against the constitution and a step backwards. However we can have a law against external funding of such programs. An effective implementation of such guidelines can wipe out the Evangelist conversion drives in less than 3 years.

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Then we need to change the constitution. Constitution is not set in stone. its not an end..its only a way to the means - a strong, confident India.